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Teenagers having consensual sex is basic human design. This must be decriminalised by GOI
There are countless ways in which adults fail to understand teenagers and let them down. But when a systemic orthodoxy is causing them clear injustice, at least then the adult approaches must be reformed without delay. In the case of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, court reports have been showing for years that blanket criminalisation of teenage sexual activity is deeply oppressive. Now, the Supreme Court has issued notice to GOI to give its views on amici curiae's suggestions regarding POCSO, whose rigid application in cases of adolescent relationships is found to lead to traumatically unjust outcomes.
An analysis of all judgments passed in a case involving rape in Delhi's district courts in 2013 found that around one-third involved couples who had chosen to be together. Their parents pursued the police action. Police often sympathises with the girl's father, families often punish her with a severe beating. He gets jail and a rape conviction. Because her age of consent is 18. The defence is that these families and cops' morality cannot be changed simply by changing the law. It's an untenable defence. Their private morality is immaterial. The issue is adolescents' entitlement to a private life, to coming of age, on their own terms, in perfectly healthy and natural ways.
Refusing to uphold adolescent agency to consent is in a continuum of injustice that wives also suffer. In this context, the phrase 'women and children' rings cruelly apt. GOI has been opposing the criminalisation of marital rape citing concern for 'social and family structure'. Consent, though, is the bedrock of human dignity. By wrenching it away from intimate relationships, lawmakers are enabling a legion of personal torments, and encouraging the worst instincts of adult busybodies. Reform the law, recognise consent, that's where both private and public good lie.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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